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Next Auction starts Friday 29 March. Bottle Deadline: 18 March.

Springbank Distillery

  • Pronunciation: SPRING -bank
  • Meaning:
  • Founded: 1828
  • Region: Campbeltown
  • Status: Operational
  • Owner: J & A Mitchell/Springbank Distillers
  • Production Capacity: 750,000 litres a year

Springbank is one of Scotland's many distilleries to be legitimately founded on the site of an illicit still. In 1837 the distillery was bought by the Mitchell family making this the longest family owned distillery in Scotland.  Springbank was one of the few distilleries to make it through the Campbeltown crash, caused by US prohibition and the great depression. Although the distillery was closed for seven years it managed to reopen. This has widely been attributed to the distillery focusing on quality not quantity. Now one of the last three distilleries in the region, Springbank produces two additional but diverse single malts named after closed distilleries from the area, Hazelburn and Longrow.

Never chill filtering or adding artificial colour, Springbank's continued passion for traditional whisky production is still evident today. Springbank malt their own barley and bottle their own final product on-site. The entire process is completed in one location (no other distillery in Scotland can testify to that).

Their core range is currently comprised of a 10 year old, 12 year old cask strength, 15 year old and an 18 year old expression.  There is a rich history of Springbank releases, particularly the 21 year old. All have become quick collectors items and vary in price depending on the release.

Special limited cask releases from the distillery are occasionally overlooked by collectors.  For example, 12 year old expressions matured in ex-rum, Claret, Madeira and Bourbon casks, not to mention the equivalent ‘wood expressions’ from Longrow and Hazelburn.

The ODD casks releases are all very limited in quantity, no more than 100 bottles of each produced. They brandish the words Original, Distinct and Defiant as chosen by a competition winner.

Dà Mhìle (pronounced da-vee-lay) is a small distillery located in Wales owned by John Savage-Onstwedder. John got Springbank to produce some certified organic whisky (the first ever). Some were released for the millennium, some for his sons marriage, some for the birth of his first grandchild and some because they found more! (who needs a reason to celebrate?).

Over the years there have been official releases of older Springbanks; 25 year old, 30 year old, 32 year old, 35 year old and even 50 year old whiskies have been available. For the millennium, Springbank released a set of six whiskies, ranging from a 25 year old to a 50 year old.

Springbanks determination to keep the process as close to home as possible led to a number of releases of the Springbank Local Barley, vintages from 1965 and 1966 being released in the late 1990s.These have quickly increased in value and often fetch high prices at auction. 

There have been limited numbers of independent bottles of Springbank throughout the years, with the exception of Cadenhead releases.

In 1970 Springbank bottled a 50 year old malt distilled in 1919 and would later repackage 24 bottles of this historic malt that would became a record holder as the most expensive whisky at the time, at a value of £50,000.